New Delhi, Mar 23
The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed a single judge’s order restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business, which was objected to by US-based e-commerce giant Amazon.
A division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh also issued notice to Amazon on Future Group’s appeal challenging the single judge’s March 18 judgment on the deal by which all the objections raised by them were rejected.
Notice to Amazon
A division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh also issued notice to Amazon on Future Group’s appeal challenging the single judge’s March 18 judgment on the deal by which all the objections raised by them were rejected
“…we hereby stay the order of the single judge dated March 18, 2021 till the next date of hearing,” the Bench said and listed the matter for further hearing on April 30. It also stayed the single judge order to attach assets of Future Group’s Kishore Biyani and others directing them to appear in the court on April 28.
The Bench stayed the single judge’s direction imposing a cost of Rs 20 lakh on the Future Group as well as its directors, asking them to deposit it in Prime Minister’s Relief Fund within two weeks for being used for providing Covid vaccination to senior citizens of Below Poverty Line (BPL) category of Delhi. The single judge’s order had come on Amazon’s plea seeking direction to order enforcement of the award by Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator’s (EA) on October 25, 2020, restraining Future Retail from going ahead with its Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing Future Group, sought the court to stay all the directions passed by the single judge on March 18.
He said the division Bench had earlier stayed the ad-interim order passed by the single judge earlier and it was not stayed by the Supreme Court which is also seized of the matter.
He contended that the single judge should not have passed the order as the Supreme Court is also hearing the matter and the high court’s division bench is already seized of the case.
